We'll try and learn from the verdict of the people

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The Labor caucus will reconvene [on October 22] to determine its
parliamentary leadership, its front bench and the other key caucus
positions. I'll be recontesting as the leader.

Reviewing policy

The national secretary, Tim Gartrell, is conducting an audit of
the organisational side of the campaign, which will report to the
national executive.

My purpose and recommendation to the parliamentary party will be
to have an assessment of our policies and positions and to do that
in a steady and considered way.

We need to learn from the people, after an election loss. We
need to take their verdict seriously, to analyse it, to consider
all the information that we picked up in the six-week election
campaign and, through the last parliamentary term. So we'll be
undertaking an assessment of all our policies in a considered way.
We'll be trying to improve areas where we've been deficient. We'll
try and learn from the verdict of the Australian people.

And, in areas where we've got it right, of course, we will
continue to advocate the Labor approach. My own view is that in key
areas like health and education, family policy and the environment,
our policy structure is sound.

Opposition's role

The Coalition has made a lot of unfunded election promises,
spending commitments. We'll obviously be monitoring those and
playing a proper role of a fighting Opposition in holding the
Government to account and by making sure it acts in a responsible
way, with due respect to the mandate that the Government has
received. We'll be doing our best, through the three years, to
apply parliamentary scrutiny and accountability to the Howard
Government. I want us to be a good fighting Opposition, a positive
political party in the House of Representatives. We've had success
through the course of this year in setting the agenda in a number
of areas, starting with the reform of parliamentary superannuation
areas where the Government then followed. So, too, if the
Government does something good, I will be saying so.

Winning in 2007

I believe that the 2007 federal election is winnable and I'll be
doing everything hopefully, with the continued honour of leading
our great party to ensure that we deliver that election victory in
2007.

We didn't have enough support and enough success on Saturday but
we'll put forward our positive alternatives to the Australian
people in the next three years and obviously hope to be victorious
in 2007.

Where went wrong

I'll be talking to my colleagues. I outlined some areas where we
need to do better, where we need to present better policies to the
Australian people. I'll be talking to my colleagues about their
feedback and there'll be some things that we need to do to improve
our performance and learn from the verdict of the Australian
people. Obviously, economic policy is an area where we need to
improve our stance and credentials and have stronger capacity to
bat away any dishonest, negative scare campaign that the Government
might want to muster in the future.

Forest policy

I don't regard it as [a mistake]. I advocated it strongly last
week because I thought it was right. It is possible to protect jobs
as well as protect the might Tasmanian forests. I said those things
last week and the evidence on the issue hasn't altered and, while
the result was not the one we were hoping for and expecting in
Tasmania, I know that other Labor candidates said they had some
feedback about that policy. It's one of the things that we will be
assessing as a caucus of the parliamentary party in the weeks and
months ahead.

Coalition mandate

The Prime Minister has clearly won the election and obviously if
he has the majority in the Senate, he'll be using it for those
purposes. Labor campaigned against the full privatisation of
Telstra and so, too, against the total deregulation of the labour
market in this country. They're things in which we believe very
strongly. So we'll continue to put our positions, as we believe in
them, but obviously we respect the judgement and the verdict of the
Australian people themselves and, if the Prime Minister has got a
majority in both houses, he will be exercising his mandate
according to his priorities.

The campaign

I was happy with our campaign. It was positive. We were setting
the agenda. We were putting forward initiatives. At the end of the
day, the Australian people re-elected the Howard Government. We
totally respect their judgement, their verdict.